Sound
by msjgatsby
Summary: She wants to pretend nothing's changed since before the abduction. He wants to pretend nothing's changed after it. Now that it's safe, how will they make it sound? (The second story in my Safe & Sound series. I suggest you read Safe first.)
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Welcome to my new story Sound. If you haven't read my story Safe yet, you should probably go do that first if you want to know how we got to here. Sound will be a little different than Safe in a couple ways. Less action and suspense, more relationship angst and exploration of psyche. It shall be rated M for some sexual stuff (I try to only involve sex when it enhances the plot, it is a large part of the story here). Paige's views are going to slip in a little more often then in Safe, so it may seem kind of disjointed. Overall, put up with me as an author and we should have a damn good time. If you don't want to strangle both Paige and Mike (and me) by then end of this story, I haven't done it right.

I sincerely thank you all for the wonderfully kind reviews and messages. It's lovely being part of the little Graceland fan community on here.

* * *

"Scream for me, Princess."

And Paige does.

She screams so loud and long her throat burns almost as much as the knife that they are using to slowly carve letters deep in her skin. She didn't want to give them this satisfaction, but as the knife is drug deeply into her leg her screams fill the air as she's helpless but to obey their command.

"That's right. Keep screaming. Scream for your little boyfriend..." Paige can barely comprehend the words through the pain. She doesn't know who or what he's talking about, all she knows is the pain. "...Because I know he's going to scream when he finds what's left of you. Scream his name."

"MIKE!" Paige screams the first name that comes to mind. She screams until the pain overtakes her in a swirl of red and black and she passes out.

* * *

Paige wakes up with a start, her heart pounding in her chest. The dream is still vivid in her mind. Not a dream; a living memory that she relives each time she closes her eyes. However unlike all those times she woke up in the cold warehouse to more torture, this time she wakes up to white fluffy sheets. She's in her own bed at Graceland.

The sheets are cool against her skin, but she can feel the warmth of a body radiating from behind her. A large arm, heavy with muscle, is wrapped protectively around her hip, his finger's loosely brushed over the scar she'd been dreaming about seconds before.

She snuggles back against his sleeping chest, trying to envelope herself even tighter in his arms. Even in his sleep, he pulls her closer in an instinctive hug as if he's trying to calm her. She looks around the familiar bright walls of her room and pushes the horrible memories back into their box in her mind where they belong. She won't think of it right now. She's safe in her own room on a beautiful morning, cozily curled up with Mike. He hasn't even done his usual wake up early to go running routine. This is how lazy Sundays should be.

Here in her room, without the overwhelming hospital smell of sanitizers and death, his scent surrounds her. She smiles and breathes in deeply, closing her eyes. Something about Mike's smell is extremely comforting to Paige. He smells like clean laundry, gunpowder, and something else she can't place but that's indefinably Mike.

Here in his arms, she allows herself to slip back into a light, dreamless, sleep.

* * *

Mike groggily wakes up in a comfortable bed, his face buried in a braid of gold hair. He's normally a rather light sleeper, but last night he slept like a rock. He doesn't think he has ever slept so soundly. Paige's bed is like sleeping on a grapefruit scented cloud of silk. It's far more comfortable than his own sparse bedding down the hall.

He had meant to return to his own bed last night when they got her home from the hospital, he really had. But it was late, and he put Paige to bed. He laid down with her just in case she needed anything. He was planning on going to his own bed right after she fell asleep. Looking at the current situation, that apparently did not happen.

It is amazing what having a real bed instead of a hospital cot with two people in it will do. The fact Paige is no longer hooked up to wires helps also, and Mike realizes he is fully spooning Paige. His larger body is completely wrapped around hers, every inch of them touching. He worries about her injuries, but the soft rise and fall of her chest pressed against his doesn't indicate any pain.

He doesn't know how late they slept, and doesn't want to move for fear of waking her. As he glances over his shoulder for her alarm clock, he realizes he has a bigger problem.

It's morning.

It's morning and Paige is tucked with her backside firmly pressed against his crotch. He tries to withdraw his arm slowly, to sneak away, but she sleepily mutters an unconscious objection and scoots further back into him, her ass wiggling against him making him even harder, if possible.

Her hair is in his face and smells like grapefruit and flowers. He realizes overnight his hand has migrated dangerously close to her breast, and every breath she takes it teasingly brushes against his fingertips.

"Morning." She mumbles, and Mike holds his breath, hoping there's some way she doesn't feel him pressed hard against her.

"Morning." He says his cheeks coloring.

"Good dreams?" She teases, rubbing her ass purposefully back against his morning wood, and he groans. She definitely noticed.

"It's just the morning." He defends, trying to pull away from her, but she holds onto his arm keeping him pressed to her.

"Mmmm… I'm still impressed." She murmers in a flirty voice, and she has got to stop rubbing her ass against him.

"I should go shower." Mike says shyly, not making eye contact with her as she looks back over her shoulder at him with heavily lidded green eyes.

"Can I join you?" She purrs.

Mike shuts his eyes tight. She doesn't know what she's doing to him. Images of her naked in the shower flash through his mind.

_...Her on her knees in front of him, as the hot water drips down his back..._

_...The way her cries of passion would echo in the acoustics of the small shower even as he swallows them from her lips..._

_...Her breasts pressed up against the glass as he fucks her from behind…_

He's disgusting for thinking of her like this right now. After all she's been through, the injuries, the violations, she's still trusted him to be in her bed, and what does he do? Imagines fucking her like some porn star.

She's not helping these images as she rolls over, wrapping her limbs around him, rocking her body close to his and burying her head into his neck, purring like a kitten. Mike squeezes his eyes tight at the feel of her hips against his, his erection caught between their stomachs and the feel of her breath on his neck.

"Do you always sleep in so many clothes?" She teases, bringing her hand down to pull lightly at his jeans.

"I'm sorry… I wasn't planning on falling asleep here last night. I should have gone to my bed. You probably want some privacy." Mike keeps his eyes trained above her head. If he looks down at those sleepy eyes staring up at him, he'll do something they'll both regret.

"No… I'm glad you stayed. You make a good comfort blanket." She buries her head in his chest, inhaling deeply. Mike bites his lip as the motion causes her hips to rock against his once again.

"Sorry, I probably smell. I should get that shower." Mike says, untangling himself from her and rolling away quickly. He makes sure to stand up facing away from her, so she can't see how hard he is under his jeans.

"You smell fine Mike. Come back to bed." Paige insists.

"I can't stay in bed. I shouldn't have slept as late as I did. Things to do." Mike tries to will his erection to go down, as he babbles to her with his back still facing her. "You need to take your meds and eat. I'll go grab those for you and breakfast. I'm just going to hop in the shower first and then I'll be right back. I promise."

"Fine." Paige huffs, seeming pissed at him for some reason. She's probably in pain. He really should go get her meds and breakfast first, but he needs to take care of his issue first.

"I'll be quick." He tries to assure her, and with as hard as he is right now he has no doubt he will be.

"Whatever. Don't use up all the hot water." She mumbles, rolling away from him in a pout. She's definitely pissed, Mike thinks. He wants to take care of her, but he's so aroused he will be useless to her until he gets things fixed first. There's no way in hell he could handle helping her shower in his current condition. He doesn't trust himself enough. She didn't need him lusting over her right now. He just needed to support her.

"Look, I can go get Charlie to help if you want a shower." Mike says, wanting to attend to Paige's needs, and hating himself for making her mad at him for putting his own immediate physical need ahead of hers.

"Whatever. Go." Paige mutters into her pillow.

Mike slips out the door uncomfortably, kicking himself mentally. Mike can't believe they've only been home a day and he's upset her already. As soon as he grabs his shower he's going to make it up to her by fixing her the best breakfast imaginable. Or possibly letting someone who can actually cook make her breakfast. Or ordering out. Either way, his only goal this weekend will be making Paige smile again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** Hello! I did not realize how much time had passed since I updated until the 'are you dead' emails started arriving. No, I am not dead. My doctor gave me the 'ok' to return to life and I'm going back with a vengeance. I shall not bore you all with personal 'nongraceland' related details, but suffice it to say I'm super busy and loving every second of it.

I have about 20 chapters of this story half written, so really it's just about finishing them right now, but I swear I'm working on it in my spare time. I rushed to finish this chapter before bed, so I can guarantee there will be tons of mistakes.

Big thanks to katydid13 for the idea to write this chapter.

Just so you know, this is a real article I'm referencing if you care to google it.

* * *

Paige wakes up to find Mike missing from her bed. She's not sure what time it is. The sun is out, but as she wanders through the empty house she figures everyone else is probably at work. Mike's around here somewhere though. She knows it.

She finds him in the computer room. All it feels like they do anymore is sleep, and yet Mike still looks tired. No, not tired. Weary. He is rubbing his temple as he stares intently at the screen in front of him. He's concentrating so hard he doesn't even realize Paige has entered the room.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Paige asks perkily, happy to see him again. She leans in over his shoulder to see what Mike's focusing so hard on. Mike jumps about a foot in the air in surprise when he feels her hands touch his shoulders.

"Hey! I thought you were napping!" Mike clears the screen quickly, and turns in the chair to face her.

"I've been napping for days." Paige says dismissively, reaching for the mouse. "What were you looking at?"

When Mike doesn't answer her and swats her hand away, Paige grins.

"Porn?" She teases him, leaning in so her breasts brush up against his back while she glances down at his pants to see if they're still on.

"No! Just stuff… FBI stuff. It's nothing." Mike pulls away from her and stands up, heading for the door motioning for her to follow her. "You must be hungry. Come on, I'll fix you lunch."

"You look really guilty." Paige's eyes evaluate him suspiciously. "Besides, you're suspended right now. You shouldn't have work."

"You know me. Workaholic. I have to stay sharp. Come on let's go." Mike says impatiently.

Paige's bullshit detector is screaming in her head. She quickly reaches over and opens the internet tab to the last site visited before he can stop her. What appears on the screen is the last thing she was expecting to see. Her blood boils when she realizes what he was trying to hide from her.

"A Man's Guide to Helping a Woman Who Has Been Raped." Paige reads in a dangerous voice before turning to glare at Mike. "Really Mike? You're trying to handle me?!"

"I'm not trying to handle you. I just want to know what I need to do in this situation." Mike knows he's in trouble. He has to try to calm Paige down before she takes this the wrong way. As he crosses the room back towards her he can tell from her body language he's too late. He knows this is the start of another fight.

"You think you need to read a book to understand me now? Like this has changed me into some psycho you need to research?!" She screams, backing away from his advances angrily. She is aware that her overreaction may be proving his point that she is crazy now, but she doesn't care. She is so mad at him.

"This has nothing to do with you!" Mike has to yell back just to be heard over her. He's so glad no one else is home right now to hear them screaming at each other.

"Of course it does! Don't tell me this is required reading for some book club you joined. I'm not stupid, Mike." Paige doesn't know if she has ever been this furious with Mike. He would believe all this psycho babble over her? He had to research her like she had contracted some fatal disease and he had to protect himself from catching it? She was fine! Why couldn't he see that?

"I don't know about this, ok? I don't want to make any mistakes with you!" Mike defends himself. "This isn't about you, I promise. I don't know what to do Paige. I need to learn all the information out there! It's how I deal with things."

"Ok. Other than the utter stupidity of researching this, what mistakes could you possibly make?" Paige demands. There was a guidebook for shit like this? Like it was some game where if you did all the right things you were magically cured and the past was erased? Paige is so angry she wants to throw the computer out the window.

"Well according to this I've already made tons!" Mike yells right back at her. Even as he's doing it, Mike knows that yelling at her is probably a mistake too.

"Like what?" Paige challenges.

"Ok, listen to this,_ Men often have an instinct to seek revenge, but this is a poor option that can further traumatize the victim, rather than helping her. This is a time when calmness is needed, and violent revenge would be the wrong way to help her._" Mike reads aloud. "Well I certainly fucked that up!"

Slamming his fists on the table in frustration, he quickly moves himself away from her as he tries to calm himself back down. He would never hurt her, but he just wants to punch something. He doesn't feel in control of his temper just thinking about it, and he would never forgive himself if he even accidentally hurt her.

"Mike, you didn't seek revenge. You rescued me."

Paige can't believe that Mike is using this stupid internet article to put more blame on himself. He had such a martyr complex. Briggs nearly destroyed the house, Mike thinks it's because he's not good enough. Mike saves her after her abduction and blames himself for not somehow preemptively protecting her from every deranged criminal on the street. Now he's blaming himself for saving her the wrong way?

"We both know I could have done that without slaughtering those animals." Mike says, his voice cold and stinging with anger even as he mentions Paige's attackers.

"No, we don't." Paige says simply. "Mike, you haven't done anything wrong. None of this is your fault."

"See? That there!" Mike declares crossing back to the computer to scroll down the page.

"What now?" Paige growls, as Mike consults that damn article again.

"_The victim may find herself having to comfort the helper._" Mike reads aloud. "It's not about me Paige! My problems shouldn't be your burden right now. It's about you."

"It shouldn't be all about me and not you! It should be about us! Why am I not allowed to care about you anymore? I'm still me! I am not a victim!" Paige insists. She doesn't know why Mike is treating her like this delicate flower. Ever since the hospital he's been so damn careful with her. She's still the same person! Nothing has changed.

"No. No you're right." Mike can't believe he's messed up again. "You're not a victim. You're a _survivor_."

"I hate you so much right now." Paige seethes.

Paige grips the back of the chair so hard she can feel her nails cutting through the cloth. Each of her broken fingers send pain shooting up her arm from the stress, but she relishes it. It's the only thing keeping her from throwing the damn chair at Mike's head.

"I'm sorry! I'm trying Paige. I don't know how to do this!" Mike apologizes again.

"I'm the same person I was before." Paige can barely get the words out through her gritted teeth. "Nothing has changed."

"Paige, what happened to you was traumatic. It's ok to grieve. You don't have to pretend everything's-"

"I'm not pretending." Paige snaps.

"I don't understand what you're going through, but I care about you deeply. If you want to talk to me about this, I will listen. I want to be someone you can trust to be helpful to you, whenever you are ready." Mike recites.

Paige glares at him.

Mike waits patiently for her response.

"That's a direct quote from the article isn't it?"

"Ok, yes. Yes it is, but I mean it Paige! I want to be there for you. I know I'm fucking it all up, but I want to help."

"Dammit Mike!" Paige sends the chair flying across the room. It clatters against the wall with a loud crash. She instantly regrets the sudden action and grips her broken hand in pain, letting out an anguished yell both from the injury and pure frustration. Mike rushes forward to help her, but the look she gives him stops him dead in his tracks.

Paige stands there breathing deeply, trying to center herself and remove the blinding cloud of pain and rage. Finally she says in a low steady voice, "Fine. While you train yourself to be the 'rape guru' I'm going to go take care of actual problems by changing my bandages and taking my pills."

Mike wants to help, to fix things, but he knows better than to follow her right now. From the look on her face she may shoot him.

"Tell me if there's anything in that article that says how to magically heal broken bones!" Paige yells at him as she turns and storms out of the room. She's too angry to even look at Mike anymore.

Once she's gone, Mike groans and collapses back in a chair dragging it over to the computer. He feels like everything he does is wrong recently. He just wants to help her, and all he seems to do is piss her off. The article warned that rape victims have a tendency to have emotional outbursts and take it out on the person trying to help them. The article said it was a way of them testing to see who they could really depend on. Mike knows that somehow he has to show her that she can depend on him. That no matter how much she pushes him away, he's going to be there for her.

Mike decides the best thing he can do right now is just let Paige cool off and then try again. He turns back to the article and continues to read where he left off, hoping that somewhere on these pages there's a solution.

He's not even sure this article is meant for him. It seems to be geared towards fathers, husbands, and boyfriends, but it's the most on point piece he's found on what he as a man, or as a _secondary survivor_ as the article says, can do. So far, however, it has mostly just been confirming that he's fucking the whole thing up. He sighs as he reads the next words on the page.

_Tell her you love her. Tell her you love her. Tell her again that you love her. Got that yet?_

_Tell her you love her._


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Notes:** Any resemblance of this chapter to real life events where I spent over an hour the other evening wrestling my vacuum cleaner is purely coincidental… and by that I mean it's pretty much a journal entry.

These first few chapters are just dragging... (they're supposed to) I want to get past all this exposition and get to the good stuff. Unfortunately it must be done. Thanks to LovesLoveAndAngst who motivates me to finish when I lose the willpower and to all of you for the reviews.

* * *

Life is beginning to feel normal again for Mike now that he's back at Graceland. It's not the same as before, he's still off work, but he and Paige have fallen into a new type of normal. Everyone else has resumed their daily activities, and Mike has even started his early morning runs again.

This morning, everyone else is already off at work, and Mike has just gotten out of the shower after his run. He gets dressed from his suitcase, he really should unpack one day. Paige made fun of him the other day for dressing up when all he was doing was lying on the couch with her all day. He looks for something more casual, but all he sees that is clean is his green polo and the cancer shirt Johnny got him at the hospital.

It would normally be an easy choice. The shirt Johnny got him is ridiculous and he loves the green shirt, but for some reason Mike hasn't worn the green polo since the disastrous time he had kissed Paige and she had rejected him.

If she had thought he was lost then, he didn't want to know what she thought of him now. He felt completely out of control of everything, and was clinging to her like an anchor.

With a sigh, he opts for the cancer tshirt. He might be overthinking it, but he doesn't want to take any chances Paige might associate the green shirt with him trying to kiss her and feel uncomfortable. Besides, maybe the ridiculousness of the "Protect your bumps, feel for lumps' shirt will make her laugh. He zips his only hoodie up over top of the shirt and heads down the hall to Paige's room.

When he looks into Paige's room and does not find her in bed, Mike feels a moment of panic. This is not routine. She should be sleeping in her bed. Then he hears a thump and a curse from downstairs and runs down to see her standing in the middle of the living room in an oversized sweater and either no pants or the tiniest shorts in the world, trying to turn the fallen vacuum cleaner upright with one hand.

"Paige, you don't have to do that. I'll do your chores for you. Sit." Mike offers as he rushes down the stairs.

"Mike, I can't sit any more! I need to do something! I'm so bored!"

"Bored enough that you're doing chores?" Mike asks cynically. "You weasle out of your turns on the chore wheel more than anyone!"

"You're just jealous because you never get out of chores." She sticks her tongue out at him. It's true. Mike does always seem to be doing not only his chores, but everyone else's. He has a tendency to barter spins on the chore wheel for favors, or lose at games. Of course the whole house cheats.

"Do you even know how to work that thing?" Mike asks, watching as Paige plugs in the vacuum, something he's never seen her do before and never thought he'd live to witness.

"Sucking end on floor, press 'on' button." Paige says simply, turning on the vacuum which makes almost enough noise to drown out Mike's comentary.

"Watch out for the chord, Paige. What are you doing? You're not snake wrestling! Just keep the cord out of the way of the vacuum." Mike watches in disbelief that anyone could make vacuuming look so complicated. Finally when she looks like she's in danger of asphyxiating herself with the cord, he steps forward. "How are you even getting so tangled up in this? Here let me help..."

Paige prances away from him with the vacuum cleaner, and would probably get farther if she weren't so hopelessly tangled. Mike sighs at her stubborn insistence to do things on her own, and looks down at the rug, which looks dustier than when she started somehow.

"That's not cleaning the floors…" He rolls his eyes. He's starting to wonder what her childhood was like, because it was as though the girl had never used a vacuum before.

"The vacuum's broken!" Paige exclaims in frustration, flinging her hands up in the air and letting the vacuum fall on the floor.

"The vacuum is not broken!" Mike huffs, gently pushing her to the side so he can inspect the vacuum. "You're probably just not- oh wait this really isn't working."

"I told you!" Paige declares indignantly.

"The bags probably full. We'll just swap it out… no this is empty. Maybe it just needs readjusting?" Mike begins to take the vacuum apart piece by piece, looking for what the problem is.

"It's broken! Let's just throw it out and go to the store and buy a new one!" Paige says, sitting down on the couch. Her healing body is already worn out from exertion.

"We're not buying a new one! I'm sure there's a simple solution." Mike says, carefully examining all the different parts of the vacuum.

"Let's just buy a new one!" Paige groans at Mike's stubbornness now.

"We're not buying a new one. This one has been here for less time than me. It's practically brand new. We can fix this." Mike insists, sitting next to the pile of vacuum parts continually trying to put new pieces together, turning it on and then trying a different way.

"Well then let's take it to a repair store!" Paige suggests. This has already taken up way too much time. It shouldn't be this hard to clean the place.

"For the prices they charge we might as well buy a new vacuum! We'll try fixing it ourselves first." Mike says, replacing the bag with a new one and becoming more frustrated when the vacuum still refuses to provide any suction.

After Mike has ruled out the filter needing changed, everything being connected properly, the empty bag, and the switches being changed, he pulls out his phone and begins to search the internet for solutions.

"What are you, Macgyver?" Paige rolls her eyes. "The damn things broken Mike. Let's just take it and let a professional look at it. Or better yet, buy a new one! They're what? Fifty bucks?"

"Yeah, if you want a piece of crap. This one is about seven hundred dollars." Mike says distractedly as he examines the vacuum in comparison to the diagram on his phone..

"For a vacuum?!" Paige is shocked by the price.

"This is a Miele, which means it's got German engineering. It's the BMW of vacuums. Buy quality Paige." Mike lectures.

"Why?! The damn thing breaks just the same!"

"We can fix it." Mike says patiently.

"Or we can buy a new one! Come on, it's just seven hundred dollars!"

"Just seven hundred dollars?! The DEA must pay better than FBI. I joined the wrong field." Mike grumbles. He's beginning to suspect that Paige and him may have grown up under very different financial circumstances. If she was secretly wealthy, he would think she could afford clothes without holes in them that actually fit. Though she did look really cute hiding in that giant sweater, her long legs spread out on the couch.

"Mike, it's a house vacuum cleaner. We can charge it to the house account, it's not even our money."

"It's a waste of taxpayer dollars."

"You sound like a republican." Paige laughs, rolling her eyes. "Oh my god Mike, are you a republican?!"

"Look the way I grew up when something breaks, you fix it." Mike says, ignoring her previous question and scrolling through the internet on his phone. The answer has got to be out there somewhere.

He is dead set on fixing this vacuum. He's not even sure why he is so focused on fixing the vacuum, but suddenly it has become an obsession. Like if he can fix the broken vacuum he can somehow fix Paige too.

"What? Are you going to teach yourself how to be a vacuum expert in the next two minutes? Come on Mike let's just take it to a professional." Paige rolls her eyes.

Mike may have grown up that fixing things, but Paige grew up in Beverly Hills. They didn't even have a vacuum in her house. They had maids who came with vacuums. There if you could afford to pay someone else to deal with the problem, and that person could do the job better, you did. She would never understand the male ego of not hiring someone else to do the dirty work.

"Where's your adventurous spirit?" Mike goads her, where she lies strewn across the couch.

"We are undercover agents goddammit! Not mechanics!" Paige insists. This all seemed like a waste of what little energy she had. She had just wanted to do one useful thing. It was now looking like the place would never be cleaned.

"Well pretend you're undercover as a vacuum mechanic." Mike says, ignoring her otherwise to search through his phone. "Here we go. This site says if the vacuum's not sucking then it's probably a clog in the hose."

"Can we buy a new hose?" Paige asks, and Mike shoots her a dirty look.

"I never realized how spoiled you are."

"Fine, we'll fix it. Give me the damn phone." Paige grabs Mike's phone from his hand, beginning to scroll through ideas of how to fix the vacuum. She refuses to have Mike think she's spoiled.

Mike just sit there and smiles goofily watching Paige trying to prove him wrong. He is learning new things about Paige every day.

Right now she's reminding him of a girl he went to elementary school with, Annabelle Smith. Despite coming from a rather poor family, Mike's mom made sure he always was sent to private schools. However, since he didn't have money, Mike was always the outcast growing up. It never bothered him, he focused hard on school and didn't have time for socializing anyways.

The only time he wished he were someone different was when Annabelle walked down the halls. She had this blonde hair and this beautiful smile, and wasn't aware of things like money or Mike's feelings for her. Mike knows if he had gone to school with Paige, he would have had to admire her from afar just like Annabelle Smith. Every now and then when he's around Paige, he's overwhelmed by those same feelings of inadequacy and awe.

"Ok, we need tools."

"Alright. Tools!" Mike clears his mind of fears of Paige being too good for him, and focuses on the task at hand. "Where are those?"

"If we have any in this house, I have no clue where they would be. I always just call the repairman." Paige admits.

"Alright, so we will make do. What's the site say?" Mike leans in close to Paige to look at the phone as well. "We need something long and hard enough to try to push the clog through the hose."

Paige grins a huge grin and looks down at Mike's pants. "Think you're up to the task?"

"Haha. I'm not that hard up for sex. I was thinking a broom handle." Mike says. "And then we need pliars or something long enough to reach in and pull out the clog once we get it closer to the end."

"Where are the pliers?"

"Couldn't find them. I've got scissors, chopsticks, salad tongs, throwing knives and a hanger."

Mike holds the broom between his legs and tries to push the hose over it, working the clog slowly down the hose.

"It looks like you're putting on the world's most giant condom." Paige giggles.

"Don't get your hopes up expecting a broom handle or anything. I'm fine, but I'm not quite that big. I wouldn't want you to be disappointed in the future." Mike says as he works on forcing the clog through the hose pushing until he's actually straining.

It's only when he looks up and seeing the questioning smile on Paige's face that he realizes he just implied that he intended to have sex with her in the future. Completely flustered and hoping she didn't read too much into his thoughtless comment he hands her the end of the tube. "I think I got it to a point where you might be able to reach it with the chopsticks.

"This looks so wrong." Mike sighs, as he watches Paige shove give up on the chopsticks and shove two fingers into the end of the hose, curling and twisting them to try to remove the clump. Against his will he can feel himself getting hard. He had never found vacuuming sexy before. How did the most innocent of activities somehow manage to feel so downright dirty now? Was there nothing he could do with her that wasn't sexually charged? Or was it just him who was noticing.

Paige finally gives up with a frustrated groan, collapsing back on the couch, and Mike is secretly thankful. Trying to get his mind out the gutter, Mike pulls the hose back and tries to see what the problem is.

"Do you have a flashlight?" Mike asks, wanting to see what the hell could be so difficult to get out of a vacuum cleaner.

"I have an iphone with a flashlight app." Paige giggles.

"Close enough. Let me have it." Mike reaches out for her phone.

"Well I'm busy using it." Paige laughs, holding the phone up in front of her.

"Are you filming this?" Mike asks indignantly looking up from where he has been furiously pumping the hose over the broom handle, trying to clear the clog. She is so immature.

"Hell yes I'm filming this." Paige says, barely able to breath through her laughter. Mike's worried she might bust her spleen again. "I never pass up a chance for blackmail. Someday I'm going to ask you for a favor, and this ensures your cooperation."

Mike doesn't have a chance to tell her she wouldn't need the blackmail because he already can't deny her anything. At that moment the vacuum finally sucks the rest of the clog through and the machine is fixed. Unfortunately by this point, both are too tired to vacuum, and they collapse on the couch, savoring their victory and ignoring the trashed room.

When Johnny and Charlie walk through the door later on, they find the house a mess and in the middle of it all is Paige lying on the couch with Mike spooned behind her. Both bewildered roommates look at the dust bunnies and random objects scattered about the living room and then look questioningly at Paige who is awake.

"What happened here?" Charlie asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Mike jacked off the vacuum cleaner." Paige grins, feeling Mike wince behind her.

"Yeah, he's been making that sort of thing a habit recently." Johnny says with a shit eating grin. "You have a nice long shower this morning Mikey?"

The hand that is wrapped around Paige's waist lifts with just enough energy to give Johnny the finger before sleepily wrapping back around Paige and pulling her even closer to him. Behind her, Mike buries his face between Paige's shoulder blades. If he can't see his obnoxious roommates, maybe they'll just go away.

"Yeah don't think we buy this whole 'I'm asleep schtick.'" Charlie calls Mike out. Giving Paige a hopeful, questioning gaze she asks, "Unless those little sleepovers you two are having are finally involving less actual sleep."

Paige just shakes her head in a silent no, laughing as Mike grabs the nearest pillow and chucks it at his two roommates without raising his head from behind her.

"You all are perverts." Mike mumbles. "Maybe the house would get clean if you all cared a little less about what I did with my dick."

"Or didn't do as the case may be." Charlie grumbles under her breath.

"Whatever dude. You're just lying around the house all day and the house is a bigger mess than when we left. Don't blame this all on us. Deadbeats. If you're not fucking, and you're not cleaning, what do you do all day?" Johnny asks crossing his arms.

"Mostly we mess with your room, Johnny." Paige grins mysteriously.

"Oh that's so not cool. What did you do?" Johnny sounds slightly hysterical, and the other three try to keep from laughing. "P, what did you do? Did you take something? Did you find my..."

"Find your what?" Charlie asks, once Johnny decides against finishing that question.

"Once I find out what you did, expect retribution." Johnny threatens as he dashes towards the stairs.

"You can't retribute against me! I'm an invalid! I have a free pass!" Paige yells after him.

"Evil. Both of you." Charlie shakes her head, but looks amused as she more casually walks towards the stairs to make sure Johnny doesn't give himself a coronary.

Once both roommates were out of earshot, Mike asks, "Did you do something to his room?" He sounds impressed.

"No, but he's going to tear the place up freaking out trying to find out what he thinks I did. And there's always tomorrow..." Paige grins, thinking about all the fun ways available to her to torment Johnny now that she's got time off and is starting to feel better.

"Mmmm we can't tomorrow." Mike mumbles sleepily, nuzzling her ear, "We've got therapy tomorrow, remember?"

"Can't we just skip it?" Paige begs, settling back comfortably into Mike's embrace now that the other two are gone. There was so much she didn't want to think about or talk about, especially with a shrink. She just wanted to put it all off, spend a few more days lazily lying around the house with Mike and then go straight back to work.

"Nope. Your's is doctor's orders, and mine is mandated by the bureau on account of my 'rage'."

"What are you going to tell them?" Paige asks curiously. She wonders if Mike will talk about her in his session, or just his apparent rage issues.

"Whatever they need to hear to put me back in the field."


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: Two chapters in a week! Woohoo! I think the key is to not edit well and post subpar quality, but eh, at least it's up. Thanks for the reviews!

* * *

"Have you ever cooked before?" Mike asks skeptically as he leans against the kitchen counter watching Paige attempt to make dinner for the house.

"We're the only ones not working. We have to do something productive. Besides don't you remember the epic double-decker-peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwiches I made your second week here?"

"Yes, I know you smear things well, but have you actually cooked? As in used heat and mixed things together to make food." Mike grins, watching her attempt to chop up tomatoes.

"Ow!" Paige says, almost on cue, bringing a sliced thumb tip up to her mouth.

"Are you ok?" Mike rushes forward.

"Yeah. It's just harder to chop with this thing on my hand." Paige holds up her broken fingers which are taped together with gauze up in in demonstration of her difficulties. Her sling is on the countertop. She hates wearing that thing.

"Here let me help." Mike comes up behind her and wraps his arms around hers, his fingers guiding her hands holding the knife and the tomatoes.

"I can do it myself I just need to go slow…" Paige says, suddenly breathless from his near proximity.

"Mmmhmm…" He murmurs in her ear, his lips brushing against it in what is almost a kiss. "Humor me. I don't want to take any chances we'll end up in that hospital again."

Mike wraps his fingers around hers, his body pressed tightly up against hers, slowly guiding her slices through the vegetables. Paige is fairly certain the multiple pairs of hands performing the same task makes it more likely that one of them will cut themselves, but she doesn't want him to stop.

She normally would be annoyed at Mike's insistence to help, but it's hard to be upset when he's standing so close. She shouldn't still be so affected by his presence. These last few weeks, the two of them have constantly been touching. He sleeps in her bed and ever since the hospital he's been much more physical with her.

Not sexually physical of course. He has been carefully avoiding anything like that, but he's consistently cuddling her, kissing her forehead, brushing her hair. It would be sweet if she wasn't so frustrated by his lack of romantic intent. He treated her like a very breakable small child, when most of the time she just wanted him to throw her down and rip her clothes off.

She worried he was feeling so open and free to touch her these days because he no longer felt any sort of sexual attraction to her. Like the rape had made her somehow asexual in his eyes.

Before the abduction, her and Mike didn't touch much, well at least not like they did now. They would hit each other playfully or poke at each other, but they didn't hug or cuddle. Because whenever they did touch, there was always a hint of danger and excitement. Every accidental brush of skin tingled long after contact was broken. It was like if they touched each other too long they would catch on fire with passion and be unable to resist each other any longer.

Now he literally spent every night in her bed holding her, and had not tried to make a move once. Everything felt safe, and Paige knew that change had to be because he no longer saw any potential for sex between the two of them. He would literally scoff at the idea as if it were the most ridiculous thing in the world if anyone brought it up.

Like now for example, as she's standing pinned between him and the kitchen counter, his hips pressed to her back and his arms completely caging her in. Now when his breath is so close to her ear she can feel the vibrations run down her spine. These are the moments that feel like they should lead to more. Like a passionate kiss that ends with him bending her over this countertop and fucking her senseless. Every time he touches her it feels like foreplay, the beginning of something amazing, except by now experience has taught her it won't lead anywhere.

As he guides her movements, she leans subtly back against him, and he leans closer in. She may not get kitchen sex out of this, but she'll enjoy what she can.

"I'm so glad you're home safe." He whispers, nuzzling her neck affectionately as he helps her cut up the tomatoes. "Graceland just doesn't feel like home without you here. When I was first assigned here, I felt so out of place. I was so convinced I should have been in DC instead. Like this was all a horrible mistake. Seriously, I never even unpacked my suitcase."

Mike can feel her hands trembling under his own. He's not sure what it is that's making him feel so honest this afternoon. Maybe it was that this morning at therapy they asked him how he felt about her and he realized he wasn't going to tell a stranger something that he had never told her. Maybe it's just how close he feels to her right now, or the fact that he's not distracted by those inquisitive green eyes that's making him brave. Whatever it is, he finds that once he starts confessing it's difficult to stop.

"But then I met you and, I don't know, everything just kind of clicked into place. I started feeling more like I belonged somewhere, and I've never felt that before. Up until now, every place I've been just felt like a stepping stone to get to the next level. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of things messed up about this house… but you're not one of them."

"Oh I don't know about that…" Paige starts to joke to lighten the mood, but Mike stops her.

"I do." Mike says solemnly.

Mike has stopped helping her chop and has brought his arms to wrap around her waist, the vegetables forgotten by both of them. He's so happy to be with her in the silent kitchen sharing this moment with her. Just the fact that she's standing, no longer forced to be in bed, is good enough for him. With her back pressed to him, he can't help but bury his face in her hair. She smells like grapefruit, and he's glad she's using her favorite shampoo again. At the hospital she just didn't smell like herself.

"You never told me that." Paige whispers, trying to figure out what Mike is doing. He's standing so close, why is he talking like this now?

"I should have." Mike says seriously. He can't believe she almost died without ever knowing the effect she had on him. "I should have told you the second I met you."

"You knew the second you met me? Please. You thought I was a party girl who got off on sleeping with my targets." Paige laughs, remembering the way Mike had looked at her when she first met him.

"I never thought that."

"Come on Mike. You barely said two words to me, and you freaked out thinking I was sleeping with Bobby."

"Cut me a break. I was terrified." Mike admits with a laugh. "You were different than any other woman I had ever met."

"Different how?"

"Well there's the obvious stuff. You're tough, but still kind. You're smart and a little devious and definitely not afraid to play dirty." He lets his fingertips lightly tickle her waist to prove his point. She squeals with laughter and squirms against him, and Mike stills his hands, pressing a light kiss to her shoulder in apology.

"You're spontaneous, but not in that cliche way people talk about. In a way where I truly have no clue what you're going to do next. But I like that. You always surprise me, and keep me on my toes." He continues on, wondering how he's never told her any of this before. She deserved to be told every day. "You're beautiful and you definitely know it, but you don't care."

"I'm sure you've met plenty of beautiful women…" Paige rolls her eyes at the compliment.

"Not like you." Mike says firmly. "I've met girls who are nice to look at, but that's about it. You though… Paige you're the most gorgeous woman in any room, and yet your looks are the least interesting thing about you."

"What the hell did they do to you in therapy this morning?" Paige asks with an uneasy laugh. Mike's sudden openness is taking her off guard.

"Nothing. Why?" Mike is suddenly nervous. "Is this not ok? Me talking like this, I mean. I don't want to make you uncomfortable-"

"No! It's fine! I mean, it's nice. I'm just surprised, I guess. It just seems a little out of the blue." Suddenly panicked, Paige asks. "Everything's ok, right? They're not kicking you out of Graceland or anything?"

"I guess, I just realized how close I was to losing you and when you almost lose someone, you think of all the things you should have told them…" Mike admits quietly. It was true, ever since the hospital something had changed between them. He'd felt it. Walls they'd put up before had come down. They had slipped into a pattern of intimacy at the hospital that they had never quite recovered from.

"I'm fine, Mike." Her hand comes down to hold his over stomach and she leans back into him.

"I know." Mike assures her. "I just keep thinking what if…"

"Mike, You can't do that. You'll drive yourself crazy."

"I know, and Paige, I know I'm being overbearing recently. I promise, I'll step back and let you get back to your life soon… I'm just not ready to let you go yet. Is that ok?" Mike asks her.

They can't stay like this forever, Mike knows that. Soon they're going to have to go back to the real world, and she's going to be better, and things will have to change. The rational side of him knows this. But despite Mike being a type-A workaholic who has never been able to slow down, these past few days at home with her have been pleasant for him. They've been peaceful. It's the first time in his life he's been able to enjoy doing nothing.

"Ok." Paige whispers shakily so quietly that Mike's not even sure she said anything. She sounds sad and he's not sure why. She sets down the knife and turns around to look up at Mike. Mike's brow furrows as he stares into her green eyes, trying to identify the emotion he sees in them.

Standing so close to her face-to-face, the room seems smaller. His mouth is suddenly dry. Mike finds himself staring down at her lips. He would only have to lean down a few inches and his lips would be on hers. He wets his lips nervously at the thought, his fingers twitching nervously where they rest on her hips.

He swore after the last time he kissed her, he would never kiss her again without her specifically asking him to. He wouldn't make that mistake again. He had almost ended their friendship once because he had misread the moment. Now with her being so fragile after the rape, he wouldn't dare touch her unless she specifically told him to.

He stares back at her eyes, trying to will her to ask him, but at the same time he knows it's too soon for anything like that. She needs time to heal, and he can't push her. She hasn't dealt with her issues yet and Mike knows it. She seems like she's coping, but Mike keeps waiting for her to fall apart. He needs to make sure he's there to catch her when she falls.

She's looking up at him, lips slightly parted, eyes wide, her one good hand placed over his heart. When he looks down to where she has rested her hand, he realizes he's wearing the same green polo today he was wearing the first time he kissed her. Just like then, as he looks back into her eyes, he feels the exact same urge to kiss her he felt that day, and just like that day he stops thinking. His hand tightens on her waist, pulling her forward to him...

"What's burning?"

Mike and Paige guilty jump apart at the sound of Charlie's voice calling out from the doorway.

"Shit the cookies!" Paige yells, running over to a pot on the stove, while Mike guiltily starts dicing tomatoes in an attempt to look busy. What the hell did he almost just do?! Paige had to have noticed that. Thank God Charlie had walked in before he'd done something truly stupid. AGAIN.

"What have you done to my kitchen?" Charlie demands storming into the kitchen. "Mike! You let her cook? She's worse than Johnny!"

"I was supervising…" Mike defends weakly. He's still trying to recover over what almost just happened between him and Paige. He would have to be more careful in the future.

"Paige what is burning? It smells like a bonfire in here!"

"I was making cookies." Paige holds out the recipe in defense and Charlie snatches it from her looking down at the piece of paper and then back up at Paige incredulously.

"You burned no baked cookies…"

"Just a little…" Paige says meekly, both her and Mike standing with their heads bowed as

Charlie yells at the two of them for soiling her hollowed kitchen with the smell of smoke.

"They're no bake cookies! The title alone suggests they cannot be burned! HOW?!" Charlie chastises.

Mike and Paige embarrassed, stare at the floor.

"We got distracted." Paige mutters, not looking up.

"When are you guys going back to work? Because you two are seriously the worst housewives ever. You don't clean, you can't cook, there's no sex…"

Paige and Mike exchange a guilty look, both realizing how close they may have just come to sex before Charlie came home.

"Is there sex?!" Charlie catches the look, misinterprets it, and can't contain her glee at the possibility.

"For the last time no! Of course not! No. No-No. No-No-No-No. NO!" Mike says flustered, because if Charlie had been just five minutes later he's pretty sure she would have walked in on him fucking Paige on the kitchen floor.

"Nine 'nos'? Really?" Paige looks offended she warranted such a reaction. Like the idea of sleeping with her was that repulsive.

"Look maybe you should go lie down for a bit. You must be tired." Mike says to Paige, trying to regain control of the situation. "I'll go order some pizzas, then I promise I will clean up this kitchen."

"Fine!" Paige yells at him, throwing the pot of charred goo on the floor so it splatters everywhere making an even bigger mess for Mike to clean. She then turns on her heel and storms up the stairs towards her room yelling back over her shoulder sarcastically, "Have fun with that!"


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: And the story drags on... I swear action picks up eventually. This part is supposed to feel like you're dragging on through molasses. Thanks to all those who are still reading even though the show is on break, and this story is soooo slow...

* * *

Charlie is in Paige's room helping her get dressed for the bar like she's her own life sized Barbie Doll. Since Paige is handicapped by her injuries, specifically her broken hand, getting ready on her own takes forever. The past few days she's been making due with minimal makeup and showers. Mike has helped her a bit, but she doesn't want him to know how much effort it takes for her to get dolled up. She wants to maintain some mystery and make it seem effortless. It's hard to do when he spends almost every waking second at her side.

"So what was up with the hissy fit you threw in the kitchen earlier? Everything ok with you and Mikey?" Charlie asks, failing to sound nonchalant as she stands behind Paige fixing her hair.

"The pan slipped." Paige lied deadpan, knowing that Charlie wouldn't believe her.

"Sure. Slipped as you threw it across the room. It took him like an hour to clean up all that splattered goo." Charlie says evenly, as she brushes Paige's hair in long calming strokes.

"Yeah, I really should not be allowed in the kitchen." Paige feels a twinge of guilt at the thought of Mike having to clean all that up. "Think he'll forgive me?"

"Um, given that the boy's in love with you? Yeah. Yeah, I think he'll forgive you for a little spill." Charlie says sarcastically. "I think if you wanted to shoot him, he'd help you do it, and then forgive you."

"He's not in love with me, he's just… Mike." Paige scoffs, unable to find any other word to describe him. "He's got it in his head that the kidnapping and all of that shit was his fault, and he's convinced he can fix me."

"So you think this whole thing has nothing to do with the way he feels about you?" Charlie says in a disbelieving tone.

"Charlie, you know how Mike is." Paige sighs.

"So you're saying if it was Jakes or Briggs who got abducted instead of you, you think Mike would be spooning them every night in bed?" Charlie asks as if Paige hasn't said anything. Paige laughs at the thought.

"You know how Mike is. Don't you remember the way he treated you after the whole heroin thing?"

"Yes. He gave me a hug and said he was there for me. He did not move into my room and follow me around like a lost puppy for the next month."

"He's just feeling overprotective after everything that happened. He knows he's doing it. He even told me earlier. He said he's going to back off soon and then things will go back to normal."

"Alright, maybe the hospital magnified everything, but this behavior was going on long before that." Charlie lectures, cutting through all the bullshit in her typical way. "For months, any time we go to sit anywhere, it is an unspoken rule that you and Mike sit next to each other or across from each other."

"So? There's only six of us. We pretty much have to sit by each other."

"Even when he was dating that other girl, he would watch your every move-"

"He's observant."

"In the last few months he would seek you out, and then the two of you started spending all your time together."

"I was the only one who knew he was investigating Briggs! Of course he wanted to talk to me about it." Paige has a reasonable explanation for everything Charlie could throw at her.

"Why?"

"Why what? Why did he want to talk about it?" Paige is starting to get flustered by Charlie's inquisition.

"Why did he tell you, and no one else his secret?"

"He…" Paige had never really thought about why Mike had told her. "He was hopped up on morphine! He probably just confessed it accidentally to me because I was there. It could have been anyone who caught him at that moment."

"No, it couldn't." Charlie leans back and crosses her arms. "You didn't leave his side at the hospital when he got stabbed. You waited by his bedside after visiting hours were over, when everyone else had gone home."

"He'd been stabbed. Someone needed to be there when he woke up."

"Yeah, and that someone was you." Charlie is not beating around the bush tonight. "Just like when you woke up, that someone was Mike. You don't think that means something?"

"That you all have horrible bedside manners?" Paige rolls her eyes, annoyed that Charlie won't just let this go. It feels like she's rubbing salt in an opened wound. It's not like a part of Paige doesn't wish that her and Mike were dating, but she knows it's more complicated than that.

"Fine. Be that way, I'm just saying you both would make all of our lives easier, if you would just get it over with and fuck each other already." Charlie says, finishing up Paige's hair and throwing her a new shirt. "Because all this sexual tension and hormones in the air is giving the entire house blue balls. I'm worried poor Johnny's going to start humping the couch."

"Why does everyone care? Look, it's just not going to happen." Paige protests.

"It has happened!"

"Nothing's happened. Honestly, Charlie. If something were going to happen between me and Mike, don't you think it would have happened by now?" Paige asks, frustratedly trying to put on her shirt with her injuries.

"I give up already!" Charlie growls throwing her hands up in the air in frustration. "You're both impossible."

"Hey, ready to go?" Mike appears in the doorway just in time for Charlie to storm past him in a frustrated huff.

"She's all yours. You two deserve each other." Charlie yells over her shoulder at him.

"What's her problem?" Mike asks as he walks into the room.

"Something about blue balls." Paige says vaguely. "Zip me up?"

"Do I want to know?" Mike asks.

"I don't know, she wasn't making sense." Paige mutters, looking down so she doesn't have to meet his gaze in the mirror. "Maybe she's sleeping with Briggs again."

"Well that would be a bad idea right? I mean, with them living together and everything. It could get messy." Mike says, walking over brushing her hair aside so he can zip up the back of Paige's dress. Paige closed her eyes at the feel of his fingertips grazing up her skin.

"Speaking of messy...I'm sorry about earlier in the kitchen." Paige apologizes softly, changing the subject.

"It's ok. It's been a long day. We were both tired." Mike says, recognizing that she's not saying something, but he's not sure what. "You sure you want to go out tonight?"

"God yes. I need to get out of this house. Besides, it would be a shame to waste all this effort." She says spinning around in a circle for Mike to admire.

"Alright then. Let's go." Mike aquiests. As he looks her up and down his eyes come to rest on the expanse of bare skin exposed by her low cut shirt and he adds, "Maybe grab you a sweater or something first."

"It's California. I'll be ok." Paige laughs grabbing his hand and dragging him out the door behind her.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: Quick chapter before I head to bed... Here's hoping it still makes sense in the morning.

* * *

Mike's being quiet tonight. Paige can feel his eyes on her the entire time as he sits and sips his beer observantly among her laughing roommates.

Paige on the other hand is happy to be out among the land of the living again. Even if she's not drinking, she's feeling pretty good tonight. She's laughing and joking with her roommates as normal. She's made a bet with Johnny that he can't pick up a girl with a particularly dirty pick up line, and as he walks back to the table, soaked in beer and defeat, she knows she's won.

"I'll go grab you a towel." Paige laughs, standing up to walk over the bar. Mike's eyes watch her as she goes.

"And another beer!" Johnny yells after her, clearly not pleased that he has to pick up Paige's next round on the chore wheel or that he won't be having sex tonight.

As Paige walks up to the bar laughing and asking the bar tender for a towel and a beer, she's approached by a handsome stranger.

"Hi. I'm Derek."

"Hi Derek. I'm Paige." Paige smiles at the handsome man, preparing herself for some good old fashion bar flirting.

"Hi Derek. I'm Mike." Mike reaches around Paige, seemingly from nowhere and gives Derek a firm handshake. His voice sounds overly friendly to the point of being aggressive.

"Hi Mike." The stranger doesn't even look at Mike, he keeps his eyes trained on Paige. "Paige, you probably hear this all the time, but you have the most stunning eyes I've ever seen. Would you let me have the pleasure of buying you a drink?"

It's not the most original pick up line, but it's complimentary and polite. Paige is never one to turn down a free drink, especially when the offer comes from such a beautiful man. She wouldn't certainly mind focusing her stunning eyes on that vision for a few minutes.

Paige feels Mike's hand possessively grasp her hip. Her skin tingles where his fingertips squeeze on the delicate bare skin that stretches over her hipbone. She sees Derek's eyes noticing it too. She is not a stupid girl. She knows exactly what Mike is doing, as he attempts to cockblock her. Derek is not backing down though, just waiting patiently for an answer. She can feel Mike pressing closer behind her, trying to mark his territory.

Normally Paige would feel happy to have to men fighting over her, but now… Oh hell, who's she kidding? Paige is thrilled. Standing between the two good looking men, she feels giddy. She knows she has to make a choice, but her ego is rocketing. Even with a broken hand, fading bruises, and a half assed makeup job she's doing ok for herself.

She needs to make a decision though, and Paige is torn.

On one hand, Derek is a beautiful man. He's tall with wavy black hair and a jaw that looks like it's been chiseled out of granite. From the look of his tshirt that seems to cling in just the right places, she's guessing his abs were carved from the same rock. He has beautiful deep brown eyes, and a stubble that she's sure would give her the most delicious burn if she were to kiss that strong jaw. He looks like someone took a Disney Prince, gave him the body of a greek god and then put him on the cover of GQ.

On the other hand, the heat of Mike's fingertips on her exposed skin, and his breath coming out tickling the skin of her neck right under her ear makes her want to melt back against him. She finds herself fantasizing about how far he would go to mark her as his own in front of this stranger.

In her fantasy she leans back, to find him hard behind her. Despite the crowded bar, his fingers would slip even lower, dipping below the waist of her jeans, into her panties. With Derek watching, he would grind against her from behind, his lips sucking on her neck, while his fingers would pump in and out of her. He would make Derek watch as she spread her legs for Mike, denying him nothing.

Giving up power had always been hard for Paige, especially after her recent helplessness with her attackers, but she would willingly submit to Mike. In her fantasy she can feel herself surrender to him, as he claims her for his own in front of the whole bar. So everyone would know what she was. Who she was. She was his whore. If they couldn't read it on her thigh they would hear it from her lips as his fingers would bring her to a screaming climax in the middle of the crowded room...

As if he's reading her mind, Paige feels Mike's hand tighten on her hip. When she feels his lips possessively press to the crook of her neck, her head falls back and a surprised gasp escapes her. This is not like the friendly tender kisses he's been placing in innocent spaces since the hospital. This kiss is familiar, like a lover's caress. Her skin burns, even as the damp spot he left with his tongue evaporates. She looks up at him with surprised eyes, but his are trained aggressively on the man Paige forgot was even standing in front of them.

The handsome stranger does not seem afraid of Mike though, rather he focuses his eyes on Paige, waiting to hear the verdict from her lips before he gives up the chase.

"Thanks so much for the offer, but my boyfriend here has my drink order covered." Paige says politely, leaning back against Mike's chest. "But see that sexy brunette at the end of the bar? Her glass is looking empty and I happen to know for a fact her favorite drink is Ketel vodka tonic with a squeeze of Lime on the rocks."

Paige hopes Charlie appreciates the hottie she has just thrown her way. She sighs, watching his perfectly formed ass as he walks away from her and over to Charlie. Spinning around in Mike's arms so her hand is now on his shoulder and his hand remains on her waist, she grins up at him. "You now owe me a drink mister."

"Um, I think you mean, you owe me a drink, missy. I just saved you." Mike's eyes are still warily watching the man walk away, as if he's worried he's going to come back.

"You saved me?" Paige asks incredulously, "Saved me from what? From the adonis who wanted to pay for my drinks all night?"

"Oh come on, you know that guy only wanted one thing." Mike finally brings his eyes back to focus on hers.

"Yes! And I handed off that one-very-attractive-thing to Charlie! Hence you owe me a drink." It has not escaped her notice that despite their bickering his hands are still on her waist. She tries to take advantage of that by twisting her hips suggestively against his. She leans in and seductively whispers, "Many many drinks."

"Another night." Mike kisses her protectively on the forehead. "You're still on your pain medication. You shouldn't be drinking yet. Doctor's orders."

"We're at a bar. Etiquette dictates we either drink up or hook up."

"Do you not want to be here? Do you want to go home then?" Mike asks hopefully. This is the question he's been wanting to ask her all night since they left the protective doors of graceland. He hasn't wanted to ruin her night if she's having fun, but all he wants is to sit at home on the couch with her where he knows she's safe.

"Is that an invitation?" Paige leans in and whispers seductively in his ear. His kiss still burns on her neck, and she stands on tip toes to press her hips tightly against his.

"No. You know what I mean." Mike rolls his eyes at her as if what she's suggesting is ridiculous. "If you're tired or not having fun here, we could go home. Watch some tv, go to sleep early."

"So wait, Charlie gets to have sex, and you want to go hang out like we're a boring eighty year olds?" Paige grouses, completely annoyed with Mike. Where was the possessive sexy man from two seconds ago? "Do you want to start eating dinner at 4:30 too?"

"Listen, you can't drink, and this bar is swarming with creeps. I can't keep eyes on you and pretend to be the protective boyfriend all night. Let's just go home, pop some popcorn and we can start a new tv marathon. Maybe Angel?" Mike says earnestly. "Come on, I'll let you draw on me…"

"I gave up sex for this." Paige grumbles to herself. Mike takes that as a yes.

"I'll go tell the guys we're leaving." Mike chirps, relieved to finally be getting out of here. He leans in but Paige stops him.

"I swear to God, Mike. If you kiss me on the forehead again, I will punch you in the face."

"Sounds like someone's pain pills are wearing off..." Mike leans in and places a kiss right on the tip of Paige's nose. "Grumpy."

She hits him hard on the shoulder. "Ow! What? I didn't do the forehead."

"Now who needs pain pills?" She sticks her tongue out at him. "Pansy."

Mike just grins at her wit and walks over to tell the guy's they're leaving. In a short while he'll have Paige safe at home and he can relax. The way that Derek guy was looking at her pissed him off and he wants to get her as far away from him as possible.

Paige looks over to where Charlie is grinning seductively up at Derek who is openly ogling her breasts. She sighs as she sees Mike telling the guys their leaving. Walking back over to her he smiles, placing his jacket over her bare shoulders. She shrugs it off, infuriated by his chivalrous act. He gives her a questioning look, but follows her closely as she storms out the door of the bar.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews, they really do make my day.

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The tv is on in front of them, and Paige is lying with her head in Mike's lap. He runs his fingers through her hair, staring straight ahead but not focusing on the tv.

The second they walked into the bar earlier, he could feel all the men staring at Paige. He couldn't get her out of there quick enough. The rational side of his brain realized that Paige was perfectly capable of turning down men's advances on her own, but the other side of him felt it was his job to protect her. The idea of her being left alone with one of those creeps just pissed him off. He's never been thrilled with the idea of Paige dating, but recently the thought of other men touching her fills him with an inordinate amount of rage.

Hours later at home, he's trying to shake the feelings of jealousy and anger that still have a hold on him. He tries to be reasonable. He knows he shouldn't feel this way. She wasn't his. Besides, he'd won the face off with that pompous ass at the bar. She was safe here on the couch with him, not off having anonymous sex with some pretty boy douche.

He needs to stop feeling so possessive and protective of her. She wasn't his to protect. The world wasn't full of rapists. But at this moment it wasn't rape that concerned him. Paige seemed actually interested in that overcologned dickwad. She might have gone home with him willingly and then… Mike shuts his eyes, trying to erase the picture in his head of Paige getting fucked by another man. He tells himself it didn't matter because she didn't go home with him, she went home with Mike. All this thought does though is replaces the anonymous man in his imagination with Mike.

It's not like they couldn't do it… they were all alone in the house. It would be easy. Probably easier than all the energy Mike is using trying to keep it from happening. He could just let his hand slip down to her breast. It would effortlessly slip below the low cut blouse she was wearing and he could pinch the nipples he knew lay just below the silky fabric. She would gasp and arch against his hand. Then he would lean down and press his mouth to hers to still her writhing body.

He could remove both of their clothes in less than a minute. Then all he had to do was reposition them on the couch. No, not the couch. He would lift her up and take her to bed. He wanted to make love to her on a bed the first time they were together. He wanted to take his time and make her cum for him a hundred times before they left it.

His hands rake through her hair, his fingers twitching with need to follow the forbidden path he's laid out in his mind, and he looks at her face. She's facing away from him, relaxed, watching the tv. She looks so trusting and innocent. He can't take advantage of that trust. He stops petting her hair and forces his clenched fist to rest on the arm of the couch. He trains his eyes ahead on the tv, trying to focus on the show and clear his mind of any fantasies of Paige.

"Mike?" Paige's voice breaks the silence. Apparently she was thinking about things other than the tv as well.

"Yeah?" Mike looks down at her as she turns her head to look up at him from his lap. He tries to look normal. Calm. Like he's just been watching tv for the past hour and not fantasizing about her.

"Why did you tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"When you were sent to Graceland to investigate Briggs. Why did you tell me?" Paige asks. She's uncomfortable bringing up the subject because she still feels bad about how she reacted to his confession, especially knowing what she knows now.

"I just needed to tell someone. I felt so stressed all the time with the weight of it. You all accepted me into your lives and I was spying on you. It was so stressful to always be on guard, worried someone would find out. Lying to everyone." Mike answers honestly, his mind switching tracks now that he knows what she's referring to.

"Yeah, I get all that… but why did you tell me? Why not Johnny or Charlie, someone back home, or even Jakes?"

Mike thinks about her question for a moment, and then says simply, "Because you're my best friend."

"What?!" Paige was not sure what answer she was expecting, but it wasn't that. She sits up quickly, too surprised by this information to continue sleepily resting her head in his lap. "You've only known me for a few months. You have to have friends you've known longer…"

"I have friends back home, but none of them know anything about my life now. There wasn't anyone I could call and talk to about this." Mike explains. He doesn't want to make her feel pressured or guilty, he's just stating a fact. He's aware Paige is more social than him, and probably has far more friends than him, but she asked and he wants to be truthful. "It's ok, I don't have to be yours or anything but, currently at least, you are my best friend."

She sits and gapes at him, looking like she's unable to process these words. Mike starts to feel uncomfortable. He didn't mean for it to be a big deal. He just accepted it as a fact, like saying the ocean was blue or that he liked orange juice. He honestly assumed she knew.

"I mean for a while you had some tough competition with Bello for first place but, given all that's happened, I think it's safe to say your spot is safe." Mike jokes, trying to alleviate the seriousness of the moment.

"I thought Johnny was your best…" Paige begins to say, but Mike cuts her off.

"Look I like everyone in the house, don't get me wrong. But if we're going to play favorites…" Mike looks down at his lap awkwardly for a moment. He knows these words are true, but it feels strange saying them aloud, "...you're mine."

He really doesn't want to get into a conversation as to why his other roommates don't stack up compared to her, because he really doesn't have any solid reason he can put into words. From the moment he met her, he's just wanted to be around her as much as possible because he genuinely enjoys her company even when she's being a pain in his ass. He's aware that close friendships between men and women are unconventional, but he just wants her to accept it and move on.

When Paige still doesn't respond, Mike continues, "So yeah, if I was going to tell someone in this house, it was always going to be you."

Paige sits and thinks about this new information for a while. She has never thought of Mike as her best friend before, and not just because the term 'best friend' made her think of thirteen year old girls at summer camp.

When she thought of best friends, Mike just did not immediately come to mind. Her best friend was her brother, followed closely by Alicia Thompson who had been her best friend since kindergarten, and even though they hadn't seen each other in years, still retained the title in her mind. When she thought of just people in the house, despite Mike being the newest one here, she realized she felt closest to Mike. Yet somehow the term best friend felt weird in relation to him.

"You're my favorite too." She finally whispered. "Don't tell Johnny."

"I won't." Mike grinned, pulling her closer on the couch into a hug. "It can be our secret."


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: Right now oddly my the events in my life seem more like fiction than my writing. So I'm enjoying living in my very very strange life and there seems to be little time for writing. But I'm working on it! I promise. Thank you so much for the reviews and encouragement.

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"Are you sure you should be doing this so soon?" Mike asks in harsh breaths, his muscles straining with effort.

"I've got to start again sometime." Paige whispers, all of her concentration focused on what her body is telling her as muscles she hasn't used in months come back to life.

"How are you even bending like that?" Mike mutters in awe.

"Just go a little deeper. Yes! Feel that?"

"Am I doing this right? Is this ok?" Mike's voice shakes.

"Yes! You've got it. Just like that." Paige gasps.

"Ow!"

"Just breathe." Paige tells both herself and Mike.

"Oh fuck!" Mike yells as his muscles give out. He loses his balance and falls over on the sand beside Paige in a heap. She quickly changes positions so she's arched over his sweaty body, staring amusedly down at him.

"You're pigeon pose could use a little work." She says simply, grinning down at him from her downward-dog pose, their noses almost touching. She's having to modify the poses a bit because of her injuries, but she's still doing better than Mike who has never done yoga before.

"From here on out, maybe I should just go for runs, and leave yoga alone." Mike pants, staring up at her. "I'm not very good at it."

"That's why you practice. To improve your flexibility, clear your mind, reduce stress..."

"Paige, you know me. By nature I'm an inflexible stressed individual with a mind that doesn't shut off." When she starts what he knows will be a smart aleck response, he says firmly, "And I like it that way."

"It also makes sex amazing." She grins cockily down at him, her hands on either side of his head, her body stretched so her hips are high in the air.

"I do ok." Mike says, from where he lies on his back staring up at her. She just gives him that same amused smirk she always does. The one that seems to be daring him to prove it. As Mike gasps for breath, he resists the urge that smirk gives him, to reach up and drag her down on top of him and make love to her right here on this beach. Instead he chooses to change the subject to something less sexy. "Briggs loves this stuff. I just don't get it."

"You're not him." Paige says simply, as she twists out of downward dog so she's sitting in the sand beside him. Giving him an appraising look she says warrily, almost to herself, "You're becoming more like him everyday."

"Is that a bad thing?" Mike asks, matching her solemn tone, gazing over at her.

"I don't know." Paige mumbles, looking out towards the ocean. "You've just changed so much since I first met you."

"How am I becoming like him?"

"More confident, more tortured, the lies are coming easier to you. You're angrier. You keep more to yourself." Paige says, and Mike wonders how long she's been thinking these thoughts. "I worry about you."

"Hey. I'm still me. Ok?" Mike reached out and redirected her gaze towards him. "And I don't know if becoming like Briggs would be a bad thing. The man's a legend. He's two steps ahead of everyone."

"Yes, but at what price? When you're two steps ahead of everyone it means you're all alone." Paige says.

Mike sits quietly and thinks about her words. He values Paige's opinion and advice. He'd be an idiot not to. The woman is smart. He know he's changed since coming here, the lines have blurred more than he ever could have imagined. He wants to improve, become better. He knows he's changing but he's not necessarily sure he's improving. Paige's words make him sit and evaluate himself. He wants to become more like Briggs, but a better Briggs. He wants to become a man Paige admires. He doesn't want to disappoint her ever.

"Are you scared for your hearing tomorrow?" She asks, bringing Mike out of his head and back to the moment.

"I wanted to talk to you about that. I don't want you there." Mike says firmly, stealing himself for a fight. He knows she'll argue but he doesn't want her there.

"Mike, I want to go. I need to testify on your behalf." Paige insists.

"If you go, they're going to make you relive everything. In front of everyone. They'll ask you all sorts of personal questions and it will all go on record. I don't want to put you through that."

"They need to hear it. Trust me, they'll take one look at all this mess and want to give you a hero's medal." Paige grins, gesturing to her injuries which are healing but still make her feel disgusting.

"Look, I appreciate it, but don't come. Other people can testify-" Mike doesn't want her to think he's ungrateful he knows she's trying to help him, but he doesn't want her to do so at expense of her.

"Not like I can." Paige says firmly. "I was there."

"You were unconscious." Mike corrects.

"Mike, if you lose this, they will kick you out of Graceland. You'll be lucky to be working at any branch of the FBI, they might even press criminal charges."

"I won't lose. People besides you can testify as to what the story is." Mike tries to assure her, "I'll be fine. Everyone's broken some rules at some point."

"Mike you're still new, they can make the story whatever they want." Paige says seriously. "If you do it your way, you might win. If I testify you will win. Because then it's not about whether some new kid broke the rules and used excessive force. If I testify the story becomes about me. The kidnapped girl who was tortured and would have died if she weren't heroically rescued."

"We can tell that story without you there. Briggs can back me up."

"Briggs is known as a wildcard agent. His word could damage you more. I have the cleanest record in the house. No citations."

"Paige, do you have any idea what sort of questions they'll ask you?" "They're going to make you relive every moment of the abduction. They're going to grill you for details about what happened to you, they'll ask questions about all your sexual partners, questions about me."

"What happened was I was kidnapped, tortured and raped for twenty nine hours. I've had fourteen sexual partners. And the Mike Warren I know is not a murderer deserving this hearing. He's a hero who deserves a medal." Paige answers bluntly. Sighing, she looks at Mike, trying to make him see reason.

Mike knows it's his turn to argue back. He knows she's said something about him. But all he can think is "Fourteen." He wants to ask about the Fourteen. Who they were. If she loved them. If she was still seeing any of them. He wonders if Paige is counting the six men who raped her, or if they are in addition. Fourteen seems like a lot to Mike.

After a moment of Mike's atypical silence, Paige calls him out. "You're thinking about the number aren't you?"

"No."

"Mike." She just looks at him, clearly not believing him for a second.

"It just… I mean. Wow." Mike begins to talk, but she rolls her eyes and starts to get up from where she's sitting. He doesn't want her to go. He'll have to choose his words carefully, but she's already getting up to leave.

"No! I don't mean it like that. Come here…" Mike reaches out and pulls her into a backwards hug. He makes sure her back is pressed to his chest as he kisses the top of her head protectively and tries to think about what to say. Since she's no longer facing him he can concentrate a little more. "I… I just didn't expect it to be that high."

"You can't get too close here, and that means relationships don't last very long. A girl gets lonely." She says quietly.

"I know and I'm not judging." Mike defends.

She glares up at him. She still obviously doesn't believe him.

"I'm not." He states firmly. "Look, I just… my number's not that high."

"Don't tell me Abby was your first…"

"She wasn't…" Mike hesitates before adding, "...She was my second."

"What?!" Paige jerks around to gape at him, genuinely shocked. "How is that even possible? Look at you!"

Mike took some pride in the compliment Paige had inadvertently thrown his way.

"I'm just a relationship guy I guess. I don't do one night stands. Before Abby, I dated the same girl for ten years." Mike says casually, immediately wishing he could take back what he just revealed about himself. She must think he's a sap.

"You dated a girl for ten years?" It's now Paige's turn to feel insecure and jealous. Her longest relationship hasn't even made it ten months.

"Why don't you ever talk about her?"

"Do you really want me to?" Mike asks, in a rare moment of acknowledgment of the tension between the two.

No, him and Paige weren't a couple, but Mike knew he didn't want to hear about any men in her life, and he hoped she would be equally bothered if he were to talk about his exes. Though given the fact that she had set him up with Abby and even gone on double dates with them, maybe Paige just didn't feel the same way about him. He couldn't read her in that regard. He was so good at reading people, but with Paige he'd always get it wrong. He'd kiss her when she didn't want him to. He'd try to flirt with her and she'd set him up with someone else. He couldn't figure her out.

"Do you want to?" Part of Paige wants to know everything about Mike's ex. What she was like, why they broke up, every detail. The other part of her just wants him to shut up already and he hasn't even said anything. Is he still in love with her?

"Not really." Mike says simply. Things feel strange between him and Paige right now. Awkward. Mike wishes he had never brought the subject up.

"She was a big part of your life for a decade. How come none of us know about her?"

"There's not much to tell Paige."

Looking back on it, it doesn't seem important. His past life feels like a dream he doesn't mind he woke up from. "We started dating in high school. We went to the same college together. Once we graduated and I went to Quantico, she went to school to get her masters in teaching. It was long distance. We tried to make it work, but it didn't. I'm not sure if it was the distance or whether we'd just grown apart over the years."

"Oh so that's why you want to get back to DC so bad. She's there."

It all makes sense to Paige now. She's filled with an unexpected feeling of loss. She never knew why Mike was so intent to leave Graceland, because to her it felt like he belonged here. Now she knows why. His heart is somewhere else.

"No, she's in New York in my home town teaching school, but DC's just a train ride away. So, at the time, I thought maybe we'd give it another shot." Mike answers honestly.

"You don't think that anymore?" Paige asks, her question cautious. Her voice filled with hope and suspicion.

"No. I don't. I've changed. I want different things."

"So what I'm hearing is you're done with the relationship phase and want to try the player lifestyle now?" Paige always jokes when she's uncomfortable. "Johnny will be thrilled."

"No, I'm still definitely a relationship guy." Mike laughs. "I just used to have my future planned out you know? And now, that plan just doesn't seem to fit anymore."

"So you're lost?"

"No. Not lost. I've got a plan. A new plan." Mike says confidently. "It's just changing from what I thought I wanted before."

"Does that plan still have you as an FBI agent?"

"Yes. That part hasn't changed." Mike has seen some horrible things since his time here, but at his core he still believes that being an FBI agent is the best way to fight evil in the world.

"Does part of that plan involve staying here at Graceland?"

"For now." Mike looks down at the top of her head from where she's leaning against him facing out towards the ocean. The lifestyle is stressful, but it's become home.

He waits for her to ask the next logical question. To ask if the plan involves her. As he thinks about it, he realizes the plan doesn't just involve her anymore. She is the plan. He's going to make sure nothing like this ever happens to her again. He's going to do whatever it takes to make it up to her for what she's been through.

The expected question doesn't come however. Instead she just says resolutely, "Great. Then it's settled. I'm definitely testifying at your hearing tomorrow."

"Paige-" Mike begins to argue again, but she cuts him off.

"No. Listen to me. I'm not scared of them, Mike. I'm scared of losing you." She says firmly. "I have to do this. I'd never forgive myself if you got in trouble because of me. If you lost your job. Your life."

"It's not your fault. I can't ask you to do this." Mike doesn't doubt her sincerity, but he has to protect her. If she goes and speaks on his behalf she will be vulnerable to all sorts of disgusting questions. She will have to relive everything.

Moreover, he's afraid it might change how she looks at him. He knows tomorrow they are going to try to paint him in the worst possible light. They will go into full detail of how he mercilessly killed and tortured those men. Paige and Mike have never talked about what lengths he went to to save her. He knows she's aware of the deaths, but she doesn't know how ruthless he got. What if she hated him?

"You didn't ask." She says simply. "Mike, there's no question for me. I'm keeping you here."


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note:** Sorry this has taken so long to post. I was out of town for a week traveling about, visiting old friends in various cities, so I had no time to write. Then since I took a week off, I had to put in a lot of time at my big kid job before I left and after to catch up. I still have plans to finish this story! Things should start picking up soon now! I didn't edit this chapter too well because I just wanted to get it posted. I may come back later and fix mistakes.

* * *

Mike is sitting in the courtroom feeling raw. Paige has been on the witness stand for the last hour. His attorney has been questioning her about the night of the attack, making her relive every moment. His attorney is gentle and understanding with Paige, but thorough. When he feels a question is not answered fully, he asks her to explain. Mike is hearing details he'd never heard, that he never wanted to know. The courtroom has been cleared out to give Paige privacy during her explanation. The only people in the room is Mike, his attorney, the prosecutor, judge and the court reporter.

Finally, the attorney thanks Paige for her honesty and sits down beside Mike. He gives him a reassuring smile and mouths, "She did good."

Mike shifts uncomfortably in his chair. He knows why his attorney had to ask all those questions. The court had to hear all the horrible things done to Paige so they could understand that Mike's actions were not extreme in response. He still feels distraught that Paige has to do this for him and he knows the worst isn't over yet. The prosecutor still has to cross examine Paige. He glares from his seat as the prosecutor stands up and crosses the room aggressively to where Paige sits in the stand.

"What is your relationship to Mike Warren?" The prosecutor asks Paige bluntly.

"Agent Warren and I are both agents placed at Graceland." Paige replies.

"You didn't answer my question, what is your relationship to Mike Warren?" The prosecutor repeats.

"It depends because of our living situation. We are co-workers, housemates and friends." Paige answers calmly.

"Are you lovers?"

"No."

"Are you certain?" The prosecutor asks. Mike rolls his eyes. It was a dumb question. She answered him. The prosecutor should move on.

"Am I certain I've never had sex with Mike Warren?" Paige laughs, also thinking this is dumb. "I don't know what you've heard about me sir, but I assure you, I remember the men I sleep with. No. I have never had sex with Mike Warren."

"But the record here says he stayed every night with you while you were in the hospital, even sometimes staying in your bed."

"And although we all know how incredibly sexual an ICU suite can be, somehow we managed to keep it in our pants." Paige says dryly. "I think you're confusing Graceland with Grey's Anatomy."

"Is there any romantic relationship between the two of you?" The prosecutor pushes onward, like he doesn't believe she's telling the truth.

"As I've previously stated, no. We have never dated." Paige says firmly.

"So you two don't flirt?" He asks doubtfully.

"No more than I do with anyone, handsome." Paige winks at the prosecutor. Mike has to hide his laugh with a cough.

"You two don't touch?"

"What does this have to do with the case?" Paige is starting to get frustrated with the one minded badgering of the prosecutor.

"So you two have never kissed?" The prosecutor presses on, clearly not caring whether Paige answers his questions or not. His allegations don't need her response. She's getting visibly flustered.

"Look if there's a problem with my work performance, let's talk about it. But both Agent Warren and myself are professionals who take our jobs very seriously. I would trust him with my life, and in this case-" Paige can't finish her statement, because she is cut off.

"Do you think Mike Warren is in love with you?" The prosecutor asks boldly. Mike swallows a lump in his throat. For him, time seems to stand still at this question.

"That would be pure conjecture on my part, but no. No, I don't." Paige rolls her eyes. Mike's not sure if he feels relieved or not.

"Are you in love with Mike Warren?"

"Listen, we could be here all day talking about all the men in the world who are not fucking me. But this hearing isn't about that. Today is about the men who kidnapped me, beat me, tortured me and repeatedly…" Paige yells, trying to get back to where she thinks the focus should be.

"This hearing is not a criminal trial for your attackers Ms. Arkin. This is a disciplinary hearing on whether or not Agent Warren is fit to serve, or whether he went outside the lines when he disobeyed a direct order from a commanding officer and went in with no backup, no authority, no warrant, no-"

"He had solid reason to believe I was in danger inside. It clearly falls under the exigent circumstance exception justifying a warrantless search." This time it's Paige who cuts the prosecutor off. She is getting pissed off.

"Ms. Arkin did you go to law school?" The Prosecutor asks arrogantly, clearly not appreciating being interrupted.

"No I didn't, but your implication Mike needed a warrant, leads me to question whether you actually went to law school." Paige snaps.

"Ms. Arkin, if you could just answer the questions asked and keep your personal commentary to yourself." The prosecutor is being combative with Paige and Mike wonders why his attorney isn't standing up and objecting. The prosecutor continues."So your sworn testimony is you don't think Agent Warren's judgment was at all clouded by his feelings for you?"

"No. I think Mike's judgment was sound. He saved me. I like to think if the roles were reversed, I would have done the same for him. Or anyone in the house. When you live in a house together you get close. We all care about each other. Mike is the last person who would break the rules unless he had no choice."

"Ms. Arkin you work for the DEA correct?" The prosecutor finally changes the subject, and Mike is relieved.

"Yes." Paige answers calmly.

"In the last month how many different types of drugs have you had in your system?"

"Most of those were prescribed by the hospital. I am recovering from massive injuries." Paige is rightfully offended by the question. "The others were forced when-"

"Are you worried you might become addicted?" The prosecutor gives Paige no chance to finish her sentence.

"No. I follow the doctor's orders very carefully." Paige answers shortly.

"Are you worried the drugs are going to impair your judgment?"

"No!"

"Are you on any drugs right now?" The prosecutor leans in close to the stand and Mike wants to jump up and slug the man if he takes one more step towards Paige.

"I am still on an antibiotic and some pain medication. I have a prescription for all of them."

"Ms. Arkin, I'd like to start asking some questions about the incident."

"Finally. I'd be happy to answer them." Paige rolls her eyes, but Mike is on high alert. He doubts the worst is over.

"Why would anyone kidnap you?"

"Mike was singlehandedly responsible for taking down one of the biggest drug lords in California, Jeremiah Bello." Mike can't help but notice the tone of pride in Paige's voice. "He wanted revenge on Mike."

"Yes, but why would he think that his best revenge against Mike involved capturing you?" The prosecutor goads Paige on.

"Bello seemed to have been under the mistaken impression that I was Mike's girlfriend." Paige says nervously, glancing over in Mike's direction. It's the first time the entire trial she's looked at Mike.

"Tell me Ms. Arkin, why does everyone seem to think that you are Mr. Warren's girlfriend except you?"

"Because everyone is wrong and, as I've already told you, I am not in a relationship with Mike Warren." Paige practically growls at the prosecutor.

"Ms. Arkin, the night of the incident, where were you headed?"

"I was helping Agent Dale Jakes on a case. I was-" Paige is cut off again. Mike feels his fists clenching at his sides.

"Just answer where were you headed, please?"

"The Red Line." Paige says simply, crossing her arms across her chest.

"What is the Red Line?"

"It's a gentlemen's night club."

"Why were you going to a gentlemen's night club?" Mike does not like the suggestive tone the prosecutor is using. She was obviously working, and if he'd let her finish a sentence he'd know that.

"Like I was trying to explain earlier, I was going undercover to help agent Dale Jakes-"

"What were you undercover as Ms. Arkin?"

"A dancer."

"You mean a stripper. And do you often use stripper as your undercover alias?"

"Sometimes. Bad guys like strippers." Paige shrugs casually.

"Have you ever gone under as a prostitute?"

"Yes, but I've never-"

"Ms. Arkin do you often use your sexuality to get your way?"

"Excuse me?!" Paige looks like she might punch the prosecutor herself now. Mike glares over at his attorney who just shrugs. How can this badgering be allowed? Isn't there rules against this sort of thing?

"Well you're a lovely girl, and many of your reports suggest your M.O. seems to be going undercover as the suspect's girlfriend. Presumably these 'boyfriends' of yours want to sleep with you. How many sexual partners have you had Ms. Arkin?"

"Are you asking about in my personal life or professional life?" Paige asks obstinately, refusing to fall into the verbal trap. Instead of engaging her, the prosecutor decides to move on to his next question.

"How does Agent Warren feel about your tactics? How does he feel about you seducing men to get information?"

"That is an oversimplification of how I work, and as for what people think about it, I don't know or care! I'm a great agent, whose record speaks-" Paige is getting flustered and defensive. Mike wants to rush over and hold her, assure her that he doesn't think any of these things about her.

"And how was it you, a great agent, were not able to free yourself? Presumably to perform some of the sexual acts you described earlier you would have to have your hands free. Why didn't you run away?" Mike's arms are crossed, and his fingernails dig so deeply into his skin that he starts to bleed. His jaw is clenched tightly and if looks could kill, the prosecutor would be a pile of dust right now.

"There were six men! I was unarmed, injured, and drugged. I couldn't-" Paige looks like she might start crying in frustration at any second. These are the questions she's been asking herself, but has been too ashamed to voice out loud. Could she have gotten away? Could she have fought more?

"Your testimony said that your injuries didn't occur until mostly after the sexual encounters. Did you even try to get away before that?"

"There was no way I could have-" Paige's voice is a mere whisper by now.

"So you couldn't get away, but Agent Warren could walk right in, and kill four men, just for suspecting they might have had sex with you. Ms. Arkin, has agent Warren ever shown jealousy towards any of your other lovers?" The prosecutor leans in, he's obviously going for the kill.

Paige sits there staring at him open mouthed. He's completely twisting the situation. That's not how it happened. She wasn't a slut and Mike wasn't some jealous boyfriend who shot men who took his property. But she couldn't deny it, he was twisting words but he wasn't lying. She didn't know how to answer the question, because as she thought about it Mike was always showing signs of jealousy of men she talked to. Sure he never shot them, but she'd be lying if she said he never acted jealous. She knew if she said that though the prosecutor would take that information and misrepresent it too. She doesn't get a chance to answer though, because suddenly there's a loud slam as Mike's chair crashes to the floor.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" Mike's scream echoes through the silent courtroom as he stands up quickly, knocking his chair back in the process, his body tense leaning over the table, looking wild and dangerous like he might attack at any second.

All eyes turn to Mike, but his are locked on Paige's terrified green ones. Looking into them, he realizes he's made a mistake. He just gave the prosecutor what he wanted. At that moment all the fury he felt towards the prosecutor turns inward towards himself. All the great work Paige did on the stand talking about him and how she trusts him, and he'd just ruined it. He can't believe he fell for it.

"Mr. Warren, given your history of slaughtering men who you feel are attacking Ms. Arkin, one more outburst like that and I'll ask that you be restrained for my safety." The prosecutor says smugly to Mike, turning back to Paige he asks, "Ms. Arkin, is it still your sworn statement that Mike Warren is not prone to violent over the top outbursts when he feels someone has wronged you?"

Paige just looks back at the prosecutor calmly. Mike's outburst seems to have given her the moment she needed to recollect herself.

"I would not be sitting here today if it weren't for Mike Warren. He is a great agent. He has good instincts and he gets the job done. Most of the time he goes by the book, which I guarantee he knows better than anyone here, but every now and then, the results justify the means. There is no other possible scenario where I would have come out of there alive. So if you're asking if I'm bias the answer is yes. Yes I am. Because I owe that man my life. And if you punish him for doing his job, for doing what no one else was able to do, then you're fools and you're losing a man who could, given some time, become one of the greatest agents the FBI's ever had."

Mike sits quietly, listening to Paige speak. He knows he screwed up and he had been worried she was becoming too emotional and agitated earlier. The prosecutor was clearly getting a rise out of her. The same way the prosecutor had definitely gotten under his skin. But the way she brought it around. The emotion in her speech. He's touched she would say such things about him. He's pretty sure that is the nicest thing anyone has ever said about him. He's not sure he agrees with what she says, but he wants to become the man she talked about.

As Paige walks back to the bench her fingertips lightly graze Mike's in a silent show of camaraderie. Mike reaches back and grabs her hand, pausing her beside him. His outburst probably just undid all the good she did on the stand. The prosecutor's probably going to use it as evidence that he's too emotional and too overprotective when it comes to Paige but he doesn't care right now if he loses his job. He only has one question for her.

"Did you mean that? What you said about me. Did you mean it?"

"Every word." She whispers solemnly.

"Thank you." He gives her fingertips a squeeze, his gaze lingering on her as she gives him a comforting smile and then walks back to her seat.

Coming back to the moment quickly, Mike starts thinking about the hearing again. He looks around cautiously for who might have observed the intimate moment. The prosecutor is still gloating over Mike's outburst, and his own attorney is scribbling notes beside him. The judge is staring at him knowingly. She definitely noticed the exchange. Mike sighs and stares up at the ceiling nervously. This whole thing was already not looking good for him, and Paige was only the first witness called in his disciplinary hearing. This was going to be a long day.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's Notes: Short little chapter for LovesLoveandAngst, because it's true I've been slacking. The words are just not flowing easily this week.

* * *

"How you doing Mikey?" The entire house is walking up ahead of them on the beach, but Briggs falls back to walk with Mike who slowly lagging behind the group, lost in his own thoughts.

"I still can't believe it man. Today was just crazy. I'm shaking." Mike takes a deep breath. He's been nothing but an open nerve all day today, his adrenaline is still pumping through his veins even though the hearing is over and the group is on their ways to the bar.

"Believe it my friend." Briggs takes a deep breath, staring out at the ocean like the zenned out hippie that he is.

"That prosecutor wasn't wrong… I crossed a line. It was pure luck. If one thing had gone wrong..." Mike's mind is still racing.

"That's how this job is. You did good Mike. You kept your job and live to fight another can't keep asking these 'what if' questions. The only question you can ask yourself now is was it worth it?"

Mike looks ahead at Paige who walking in front of them with the rest of the house. The beach breeze is whipping her hair all around her face and she is laughing loudly along with the others.

"It was worth it." Mike murmurs, distracted momentarily by how beautiful she is this happy. Turning back to Briggs he asks, "What do you think, though? Do you think my judgment was clouded? By her, I mean."

"It doesn't matter what I think. Your court record came out clean. Besides, do you really think I'm the one to ask about this?"

"I think you're exactly the person to ask about this. I never quite understood before, the whole Jangles thing, but now..." Mike's voice trails off as he watches Paige running playfully away from Johnny, hiding herself behind Jakes who looks thoroughly annoyed with them both.

"I think Paige is alive because of you… and that means, you're in for a lot of trouble tonight."

"What do you mean?" Mike's tears his eyes from the laughing blonde and back to Briggs, worried about what he's implying. Was Briggs really suggesting that Paige and Mike would sleep together for the first time tonight? Mike had been wondering it himself, if tonights bar crawl might lead to more between them, but he didn't know the whole house was betting on it.

"Tonight is a night for celebration my friend. Don't let her kill you." Briggs says simply, with an amused twinkle in his eye.

"I… We're just friends… I'm..." Mike blushes, suddenly flustered.

"You've clearly never celebrated with Paige before. After my birthday last year, I woke up in a chicken coop in La Paz. I was naked except for a pink feather boa." Briggs shutters at the memory.

Mike laughs at what has to be Briggs's exaggerated tale. Briggs was simply talking about Paige's prankster ways and her party girl persona, rather than making any suggestions about Mike's sex life.

"Jakes once caught a smuggler who was using a very unconventional way of smuggling hummingbirds into the country." Briggs continues to share stories of Paige's past encounters with Mike. "Paige took him out to celebrate. I've never seen it, but rumor has it, somewhere on his body, Jakes now has a hummingbird tattoo to commemorate it."

"So I won't let her get me anywhere near birds tonight. I got it." Mike shrugs. "I think I can handle her."

"Charlie once called me to come pick her up because she went out with Paige to celebrate, something, I don't know what. Somehow, they ended up in Denver on a KISS coverband tour bus. They had the makeup and everything."

"And Johnny?" Mike asks, starting to actually worry about where the night might lead him. It doesn't sound like Briggs is making these up.

"I don't know man. All I know is we went out to celebrate Cinco De Mayo I let him and Paige out of my sight for a second and three days later he showed back up at the house, sunburned with a broken arm and mononucleosis."

"Moral of the story; if Paige is out to get you, and tonight she definitely will be, good luck." Briggs grins, slapping Mike encouragingly on the back. Just at that moment Paige glances over her shoulder, her eyes connect with Mike's and she flashes him a mischievous grin, before turning back to continue taunting Johnny. Mike feels his heart flutter in his chest.


End file.
